Posts Tagged ‘gandules’

A new year is just around the corner and it’s time to give you a taster of what we’re cooking up at the Centre de Cultura Contemporània, what the various programming teams are working on, and the themes and the protagonists of our debates, films, audiovisual screenings, exhibitions and festivals for 2017.

We can look forward to a new season of activities organized around a central idea running through the entire programme: reflection on change. Get out your diaries and take note!

Debates about change in the present

We start the year with a major debate about Europe, a continent undergoing one of the most critical moments in its political history, with a humanitarian crisis surrounding refugees and the rise of authoritarianisms and xenophobia.

Debates and humanistic and philosophical reflection about the present will continue throughout the year with cycles of talks about the idea of revolution and its strength today, about the role of Russia in the world in the centenary of the October Revolution, about suicide (leading cause of non-natural death among young people in Catalonia) and about privacy at a time when technology permeates all spheres of our lives.

Climate change from the viewpoint of culture

The third culture, a line of programming that brings together art, science and design, will be very present in debates like “Technology, sovereignty and globalization”, a series of talks directed by Evgeny Morozov. Composer Brian Eno is one of the first speakers to be confirmed.

Critical reflection on climate change and the destruction of the planet is one of the big themes of the year, which we’ll be addressing in After the End of the World. Curated by José Luis de Vicente, this exhibition will present multidisciplinary projects and viewpoints, allowing us to form a fairly realistic view of what our lives and the world will be like in the not too distant future (the year 2050). This year’s edition of the International Cultural Innovation Award is open to cultural ideas that offer imaginative, effective solutions to climate change. The winning project will form part of the exhibition After the End of the World.

A few days before Kosmopolis kicks off, we’ll be opening the exhibition Photobook Phenomenon, about the relation between photography and paper publications with a deluxe group of curators: Gerry Badger, Horacio Fernández, Ryuichi Kaneko, Erik Kessels, Irene de Mendoza, Moritz Neumüller, Martin Parr, Markus Schaden and Frederic Lezmi.

The month of May sees the arrival of the sixth edition of Primera Persona, another of the CCCB’s in-house festivals in which literature, music and autobiographical narrative take the stage.

Women have a lot to say

“Good girls go to heaven—bad girls go everywhere.” This phrase, attributed to the actress Mae West, provides the inspiration for Gandules, the al fresco film programme that takes place in August. With the title “Wild and Indomitable Women of the Cinema”, we’ll be showing films that remind us of female characters who have inundated the cinema screen throughout history. María Castejón Leorza, a film critic on the team of Pikara Magazin, will be the curator of the cycle.

The Kosmopolis festival will also be looking at literature written by women as one of the central themes of this year’s edition.

15 years of experimental cinema

In 2018, Xcèntric, the CCCB’s cinema, turns 15. Xcèntric opens an anniversary season with a programme of Val del Omar premieres and a concert by El Niño de Elche. It’ll also have a new website and a book about essential filmmakers in experimental cinema.

Soy Cámara’s YouTube channel will continue to experiment with the genre of the video essay centring on current affairs and themes included in the CCCB’s programme. A new feature this year is a programme of live presentations, kicking off with the screening of Hypernormalisation, the latest documentary by Adam Curtis.

When we speak of migration, we are inevitably speaking of ourselves. There is no country, region or city to which the concept is foreign. Migration is an intrinsic phenomenon to human beings and, therefore, to their identity. In this sense, there are few means as capable as the cinema of describing it, portraying the factors at play and influencing its expressive nature. It is important to know the circumstances surrounding migratory movements as well as their terms, tone and forms of expression, whether recounting the journey of sub-Saharan immigrants through North Africa and across the Strait or of young Spaniards who leave to try and make a living far from home. Films such as the recently premiered 10.000 KM (Carlos Marqués-Marcet) and El Rayo (Fran Araújo, Ernesto de Nova) respond to these phenomena, at once manifesting the permeability and importance of the cinema as a showcase for present-day social realities.

This is why, this year, in the framework of Gandules’14 – Gas Natural Fenosa, we propose a series of films that deal with these issues. With the title Away from Home, a total of ten works will be screened al fresco in the CCCB’s courtyard in the month of August. The programme proposes a comprehensive, heterogeneous interpretation of immigration, with films that traverse all the continents in every direction and show these enforced journeys from departure to settlement and, in some cases, the subsequent return home.

Gandules’14 – Gas Natural Fenosa starts on 5 August with the Senegalese film La pirogue (La piragua) (Moussa Touré), which describes the departure and eventful journey of a boat that sets out from a small fishing village near Dakar, aiming to reach the coast of the Canary Islands. The second session, Welcome(Philippe Lioret), features an Iranian adolescent who dreams of reaching England, and the third, Amreeka (Amerrika) (Cherien Dabis), is about a Palestinian mother who sets out with her son on a bitter-sweet journey to the United States. Week two opens with the film She, a Chinese(Ella, una joven china), by the director Xiaolu Guo, who follows the steps of a young Chinese woman as she crosses her country and ends up in London. And we premiere the Chilean film I am from Chile(Gonzalo Díaz), a tragicomic account of the misadventures of a young man in the English capital. The second week closes with the film Auf der anderen Seite (Al otro lado), by German-born director of Turkish descent Fatih Akin, which tells the story of two families in their respective countries. The final week opens with the brutal Korean thriller Hwanghae (The Yellow Sea) (Hong-jin Na), which explores a story of crime across the borders between North Korea, Russia and China, and continues with the Spanish-Mexican production Aquí y allá(Antonio Méndez Esparza), about a Mexican father who, after a long time working in the United States, returns home to be with his family. Closing this year’s Gandules’14 – Gas Natural Fenosa is a special showing of Charles Chaplin’s film The Immigrant (1917), followed by the premiere in Spain ofIllégal (Il·legal)(Olivier Masset-Depasse), a Belgian film set in a French immigrant detention centre that uncovers the reality of these sordid facilities.

All the sessions will be accompanied by one of the nine winning shorts in this year’s contest, which you can vote for on the CCCB’s website.

From one end to another, from east to west, sailing the seas and oceans, breezing through airports, packing and (un)packing suitcases, talking other languages – or at least trying to, with the Andalusian and amusing touch of Spaniards in London, by Javier Moreno. Alone, or in company. Feeling at home far away, or terribly nostalgic. In this new edition of Gandules’14-Gas Natural Fenosa we will be travelling a great deal, without spending a euro and without suffering jet lag. We will travel by land, sea and air based on already-recorded images and the private views of the directors of over 20 finalist short films. A few days before the online voting deadline, we’ve decided to approach them and find out a few more things.

Frame from “Tu y Berlin” by Anna Mitjà

First stop: Berlin. We will be visiting the German capital twice, first of all with Gabriel by Alice Cugusi, where we witness the interior monologue of a writer in crisis. Cold and closed, it is not an easy city to adapt to, and even less so when there is a yearning. A long-distance love, like that of Anna Mitjà, director of Tu i Berlin, (another) thought-provoking portrait of the city and of that love that arrives precisely when different paths must be taken. Travelling is also this: taking diversions, leaving behind unfinished stories.

“Every time I take a flight I feel the urge to get my camera and let myself be carried away by a new story.” These are the words of Helena Bonastre, responsible for El viatge, which takes us from Barcelona to Maastricht in little more than 13 minutes. Objective: to find work. The same as so many other people! Today and in the past. Since time immemorial there have been people saying goodbye, farewell, Adéus (title of the short film by Antón Varela and María José Pérez), see you soon, until I don’t know when, hugging each other with a lump in their throat. “The idea is born from the perception of seeing how close families and friends find themselves forced to pack their bags and leave.” This is Galicia, but it could easily be Malaga. Everything is like in Lugares comunes, the short film by Dela Márquez and Pablo Díaz, “a small tribute to all those emigrants of yesterday and today”. In this case, inspired by the story of a nurse from Malaga who has been living in Düsseldorf (Germany) for the last two years. A goodbye like that of the grandfather of the protagonist of Toledo, Ohio, who left to “do the Americas” in the 1940s, and who knows if he ever came back, an exercise of combing through the past to find one’s origins, one’s roots. Like the search around Patagonia for the father of Diana Toucedo in Imágenes secretas. “My knowledge of my father had been based for years on mere ideals [...].Eventually I wanted to get closer to him than I had ever been capable.” And, without leaving Argentina, Viceversa, by Mexican Atzin Ortiz, narrates a return home, “a fictional representation of my own departure”. Leaving Buenos Aires at the end of seven years with the long etcetera that accompanies a goodbye.

Frame from “Aller et Retour” by Nuria Monjo

We travel ever lighter in terms of luggage, we have become post-modern nomads capable “of learning to live with a new family, other customs and another language”,says Núria Monjo, creator of Aller et retour. After her Erasmus stay in Tournai (Belgium), it was her turn to say goodbye and store away the memories. Only those that there was room for, of course. As in Udlandet, by Aina Pociello, another Erasmus in images; in this case, a year of experiences in Copenhagen. “Travelling means opening and closing cycles, starting an adventure, learning a new language or even changing your name”,such as Polish Míjau (Michael in Germany, Miguel in Spain), by Olaia Sendón: “I have not chosen a journey, nor a destination, the only thing that I chose was a person who took us from one country to another without us moving.” Michael has lived in four different countries during his life.

Some people here, some people elsewhere. The Barcelona that we know is also full of stories. Las tardes (The Afternoons) of Teresa, the Ecuadorian protagonist of the short film by Alba Molas, is an everyday example of it: a woman who tries to keep going by working as a cleaning lady and caring for the child of a family. The Primers dies (First Days) of Pakistani Ahmad (a short film by incoming new pupils at the Institut Milà i Fontanals) is a reflection on the experiences of recent arrivals in Barcelona. In their own voices, and based on real events. A lone journey that shows what the discovery of a new city is like. Pakistan is also the country of origin of the protagonist of Ashgbar, diario ambulante, by Violeta Blasco, a documentary portrait about a group of Pakistanis selling souvenirs in the Parc Güell: “I wanted to talk about that forgotten face of the city of Barcelona, that under a presumed cosmopolitanism hides an evident marginality.” And margins, and social changes, are also the subject of Encajados, by Albert Bougleux, diverse portraits by some of the neighbours of the neighbourhood of La Ribera, in Montcada i Reixac, a working-class neighbourhood marked by a heterogeneous and conflictive migratory identity. Apart from this, African immigration acquires a very important role in 9 dies, by Imma Gandia and David Castro, “a documentary portrait that establishes a comparison between the totalitarianism that is described by Hanna Arendt in Los orígenes del totalitarismo and determined social behaviours, seen today, towards immigration from countries in the South”. Based on conversations with Josufa No, which caused a major impact on the two directors, this short documentary film shows the rawest, most incomprehensible and difficult marginalisation. The suffering of many recent arrivals and the day-to-day of an immigration that is far from pleasant.

And thus our journey ends, a giant journey. When somebody says “I’m away from home” there are many things, many stories, remaining to be told. End of journey.

Remember that you still have time until 6 July to cast your votes for the nine finalist short films of this year’s Gandules.

When August comes around, the people of Barcelona know they have a date with the CCCB. During 11 editions over as many years, Gandules has offered a very varied programme of films al fresco. This year, to coincide with 20 years of the CCCB, Gandules has been opened up to the public in an international competition whose theme is “Away from Home” – in other words, emigration.

Over 50 short films have been entered for the competition from different countries, especially from Spain (Catalonia, Madrid, Basque Country, Andalusia, Valencian Community and Galicia), but also from Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Sweden, Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland and the Netherlands.

These short films are highly varied in terms of genre: documentary, fiction, animation, experimental and even video art. The majority portray dramatic situations and injustices, but there are also some that treat the topic with humour. Two main themes can be singled out: stories about African or Latin American immigrants in our country, and stories about people from our country who have had to leave, forced by the crisis. As an anecdote, it is interesting to highlight the large number of short films explaining this experience from Berlin, as well as the fact that the majority are works produced by women.

From now on, it will be the audience’s job to vote for their favourites, which can be seen shortly on the website of the CCCB, up until xx July. The nine shorts that obtain the most votes will be screened before each Gandules film and, in addition, will obtain a three-month subscription to Filmin. The winning short film, to be decided by a jury of professionals linked to the audiovisual and cultural world, will win the Gas Natural Fenosa Prize which has a value of 500 euros. In addition, the 20 selected films will also each receive a Friends of the CCCB card.

Vote for the nine shorts that we will be screening at each session of Gandules’14 Gas Natural Fenosa on this link. You can vote up until 6 July at midnight.

Al Fresco Programme

Gandules Gas Natural Fenosa is an audiovisual season that runs during each month of August in the Pati de les Dones of the CCCB. Since 2003, the programme has been linked to the CCCB’s activities and has been scheduled by different programmers, who each year have proposed a selection of eclectic films. For example, the 2003 series was devoted to trash culture, coinciding with an exhibition on the same theme; that of 2005 was devoted to humour; in 2006 the series was related with NOW. Meetings in the Present Continuous; 2008 explored interculturality, while for 2009 films were screened about music in film, and in 2012, experts from the world of cinema, such as Àngel Quintana, Núria Vidal, Carlos Losilla and Jordi Costa chose some of the best films that were acclaimed by critics but had little success with the commercial circuits.

Gandules Gas Natural Fenosa will be held from 5 to 21 August and the subjects of the main films, as with the short films, are stories that talk about emigrants in current times and that tell us about the difficult and unexpected paths they have to travel in order to reach a place where they trust they will find what their country of origin could not provide: a job, freedom, and opportunities for a better life. Among other films, there will be two premières:I am from Chile, by Gonzalo Díez (Chile, 2013), and Il·legal, by Olivier Masset-Depasse (Belgium, Luxembourg, France, 2010), along with titles such as The Yellow Sea, by Na Hong-jin (South Korea, 2010), Al otro lado, by Fatih Akin (Germany, Turkey, 2007) and La piragua, by Senegalese filmmaker Moussa Touré (Senegal, France, Germany, 2012).